Building the Old West
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About the Project
I attempt to make an Old West town to play Fistful of Lead, Reloaded.
Related Genre: Western
Related Contest: TerrainFest 2023
This Project is Active
Other Bits
I decided to start work on the stage coach. This is the undercarriage and suspension. I’m going to pattern this stagecoach after the Wells Fargo line and their coaches have a two tone scheme with the undercarriage being yellow. 
I also started working on some cactus too. I got these from the train section of the local hobby store. Annoyingly the plants are glued to a foam base inside of a plastic package. They also have extensions that protrude from the base. So I had remove the rubber glue and trim the stems. I then glued them to some Warlord Games recessed bases. Dentist’s Office Pt 5
I’m pretty sure I had a sinus infection and it’s cut my hobby time way down. It’s pretty clear I won’t finish this project by the end of October but that’s ok. I dedicated the whole month to terrain and it’s worked out pretty well. I certainly have enough to play games with and the additional projects are more of a fun to have than anything else.
Spread some PVA on the base then dipped in sand. I’ll paint it up and dry brush it later. Dentist’s Office Pt 4
I spent most of the weekend recovering from a cold but finally felt good enough today to make a little bit of progress.
I glued three Rendera bases together and sprayed them Army Painter Desert Yellow. Once dried i glued the stairs to the base. 
I added a few flyers and signs to make the place look a little more lived in.
Dentist’s Office Pt 3
Sign in place, just needs some weathering and some flyers. 
Our town is filling out nicely. Dentist’s Office Pt 2
Second time’s the charm. I glued in place the three steps that have pins to fit into the stringer then fitted in place the riser gluing it to the stringer the fitting in the remaining steps. 
Here’s the other side before the stringer is attached. 
And here’s everything done. 
Stairs in place. They’ll also get their own base and will be a separate subassembly. 
Window and door details done. Next up, some touchups to the paint and signs. Dentist’s Office Pt 1
Per standard procedure I glued the walls to each other and then dry fitted them into the floors until the glue dried. Once dried I separated the parts and painted them. Once the paint dried I then reassembled everything as seen here.
Ground floor 
Second floor and false front 
Awning and roof
Quick mockup to show roughly how it’ll look when done. Still need to add window details and clean up a few rough spots. Brief Historical Interlude
Since the next building is the Doctor/Dentist/Surgeon’s home/office I decided he’s a bit of a quack too so he sells a lot of patent medicines. In project terms, there will be a lot more bills plastered in and around his office.
Traveling medicine shows with their weird patent medicines were an iconic part of the Old West. However it was a surprisingly sophisticated marketing and distribution network. There were entire companies devoted to making these medicines. Each had its own twist, like the Quaker Healers, which had absolutely nothing to do with the actual Quaker religion (more formally the Religious Society of Friends). These shows specifically counted on no one knowing anything about actual Quakers but delivered a caricature of what was popularly imagined to be a Quaker with “ liberal use of thee and thou” in their speech to sell their supposed natural remedies.
But the big companies specialized in Indian shows. One company even completely invented an entire Indian tribe and created a whole history in order to sell these native cures.
These companies would sell you their brand but give you free printed materials for advertising. Good deal for the traveling shows as they needed to advertise to draw in big enough crowds. But if you wanted, you could instead buy the same medicine but the supplier would happily put your label on it. But you didn’t get the free printed material.
Billboard magazine, which still exists, had one audience. The traveling medicine show. They had ads for products, help wanted announcements for traveling shows, advice and how to articles. Think of it as the OTT for medicine shows.
It’s a really fascinating topic and I highly recommend a book called Step Right Up by Brooks McNamara if you want to learn more.
A short, fun, read on a really interesting topic. Posters
I added a few wanted posters, advertisements and notices to a few buildings to make things look a little bit more lived in.
Wanted posters and a notice not to spit on the sidewalks got posted at the Sheriff’s Office. 
Apparently they’re serious about the spitting. This notice was at the post office. 
Looks like the Pony Express is hiring. Next building will be the Doctor/Dentist/Morticians office. It’ll get a lot of patent medicine flyers.
